Economics is the study of opportunity. More specifically, economics is the study of the opportunities made possible by the transfer of goods and services. 'Because of its primary application to government policy, it is understandable why the subject was originally known as political economy, which was its name from the time of Adam Smith to the last quarter of the nineteenth century, when the change to "economics" took place.' [1]
Economics attempts "to explain the way in which individuals interact with one another, to use their limited resources to satisfy their alternative ends." [2]
It is a social science, concerned with how people produce, distribute, and consume.
Governments can be classified by their economic policy. The U.S. Constitution provides basic protections for private property that are the foundation of American economic policy.

George Reisman, Professor of Economics at Pepperdine University, wrote

Economics, as the science which studies the production of wealth under a system of division of labor, is actually the science which studies the production of wealth under capitalism. [3]

C. Lowell Harriss, a professor of economics at Columbia, describes economics as the study of the allocation of scarce goods and services. In market economies, this is determined by supply and demand.[1]

The actual basis of "alienation" resides within the psychological makeup of those who experience the problem. Ignorance of economics reinforces feelings of alienation and allows the alleged deficiencies of the economic system to serve as a convenient rationalization for the existence of the problem [ibid]

History of economics

Economic thought originated with the rise of the state. Classical economics, or the long-run model, was articulated by Adam Smith and has since fomented the rise of free-market capitalism in economic thought.[2]